Cruz, a 10-year-old mountain lion, sticks out its tongue while sunbathing on a ledge inside its enclosure inside the Mountain Woodland exhibit at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, 2021 N. Kinney Road.

More than 400,000 people will visit the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum this year. Chances are they will leave with 400,000 different memories to share with their friends back home, but describing just what the museum is may not be so easy.

Is the Desert Museum a zoo? An aquarium? An arboretum? An art gallery? A science center?

The answer is β€œyes,” it is all those things, which is why the recently published β€œTreasured Legacies” is such an ambitious β€” and noteworthy β€” addition to the library of Tucson literature.

Released in September by Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Press, β€œTreasured Legacies” was selected as one of the Southwest Books of the Year by the Pima County Public Library.

It is as hard to summarize as the museum itself; more than an artist’s portfolio, more than an album of photos, more than a written history.

It is all those things, all in 77 pages that would work just as well in your bookcase as on the coffee table.

β€œEvery time you go to the museum you notice things you hadn’t seen before,” said co-collaborator Anne Warner. β€œAfter you’ve seen the animals, you notice the artwork. You see the sculptures and read the poetry. You hear what the docents are teaching the kids while they’re letting them touch a snake. The museum is lots of things. We wanted the book to be lots of things, too.”

Warner, a museum volunteer since 2011, was the editor. Other collaborators include Priscilla Baldwin, who co-founded the ASDM Art Institute; Peggy Larson, the ASDM librarian and archivist; and Craig Ivanyi, its executive director.

Their interests and influences are woven together throughout the book, most visibly by the scratchboard portraits of desert animals by Baldwin.

β€œThe book is driven by her art,” Warner said. β€œSince the museum’s earliest days, (co-founder) Bill Carr wanted a natural history art museum to be an important part of what we do. He believed art helped tell our story. It always has.”

β€œTreasured Legacies” is a natural complement to another Desert Museum publication, β€œA Scrapbook,” written by Larson and first published by the museum in 2001. It used photos and short stories to lead readers through the museum’s history.

β€œTreasured Legacies” invites readers to look closely at Baldwin’s scratchboards, which in turn magnify the beauty of animals.

Werner Janssen, a volunteer in the Ironwood Gallery at the Desert Museum, shows the new book, β€œTreasured Legacies” to the Grandison Family from Washington, D.C.

Some Tucsonans, one of us for sure, are surprised to learn the ASDM Art Institute is such an important component of the museum’s educational program. The institute offers classes, workshops and special exhibitions. A state-of-the-art gallery of wildlife and nature paintings is open daily on museum grounds.

Don’t despair, history guy. β€œTreasured Legacies” reveals that Carr arrived in Tucson in 1944 with $400 in his pocket, most of which he used to open a bookshop near the university. You’ll be reminded the Desert Museum helped establish wildlife sanctuaries near the Gulf of Mexico and reestablish the presence of the Mexican gray wolf in Southern Arizona.

We hear the story behind the museum’s longtime mascot, George L. Mountainlion, and smile when reminded about the β€œDesert Ark” β€” the Studebaker station wagon Hal Gras drove when taking desert animals to visits at area grade schools.

Words, photos and paintings all contribute to the museum’s mission, which is to help us understand and appreciate the natural wonders of the Sonoran Desert.

β€œBill Carr said the Desert Museum is dedicated to life, pure and simple,” Warner noted, pointing to Chapter 4. β€œLiving it, conserving it, preserving it. … The book reminded us how far the museum has come. But it also made us wonder what the museum will look like 50 years from now; not just our museum, but all museums. All zoos and aquariums, too. What will we look like? What role will we all play?”

It is comforting to know the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is already thinking about these things. Thanks to books such as β€œTreasured Legacies,” we can begin thinking about them, too.

β€œTreasured Legacies” is available at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum gift shop and the ASDM Art Institute. Both take book orders over the phone. Call 520-883-3008 or 520-883-3024.


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